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For sale: Half of Pebble Mine?

Pebble Mine isn't even a reality yet and already it's for sale. Vancouver's Northern Dynasty Minerals recently announced its intention to sell its 50 percent stake in the controversial, proposed Bristol Bay mine, the world's largest gold deposit and fifth-largest copper deposit, according to the Alaska Journal of Commerce. Northern Dynasty's current value in the mine -- considering current gold prices ($1,430 per ounce) and other minerals -- is somewhere around $8.3 billion, pre tax, according to the article. Pebble's CEO told the Journal that he didn't expect any sale to impact the mine's strategy moving forward. John Shively "said he hasn't seen any change in attitude about Pebble by Anglo American," which owns the other 50 percent of the mine. According to the Journal, Anglo American will spend some $20 million more in 2011 than it did in 2010 on the development. Anglo American does not appear to be happy about the timing of Northern Dynasty's announcement, or about some of the information the company released, alleging that it "contained confidential information which is the property of the Pebble Partnership and was not authorized to be released." Read much more here.